Protected foodstuffs

Your mouth will water when you taste a slice of juicy Karst prosciutto, a piece of Tolminc cheese dipped in extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria and chew with a piece of Belokranjska pogača. You should also taste the wonderful Prekmurska gibanica.

So as to make sure your appetite will not go crazy, we have only initially mentioned some of Slovenia's foodstuffs that have been protected due to their special features and quality, in accordance with the European legislation. The latter enables the awarding of three different protection types: protected designation of origin (also known as PDO), protected geographical designation (known also as PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG).

Protected designation of origin

This group of foodstuffs includes those foodstuffs that are produced and prepared only in a specific geographical area and cannot be produced outside this area. Slovenia has five such foodstuffs: three cheeses – Bovec cheese, Tolminc and Nanos cheese, forest honey from Kočevje and extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria.

Protected geographical designation

For the foodstuffs that can be registered in this group it must apply that at least one of the production or preparation stages in a geographical area must take place using a traditional method. In Slovenia, 6 dry-meat products are included among the eight protected foodstuffs in this group. In the Karst region, the bora wind helps to dry the Kraški pršut, Kraški zašink and